[NOTE:
Early in 1956, the name of blacklisted screenwriter Michael Wilson had
been deleted from the screen credits of Friendly Persuasion by
Allied Artists, the film's distributor, based on a 1952 agreement
between the Screen Writers Guild and various production companies. That
agreement gave studios the right to omit from the screen the name of
any individual who had failed to clear himself before a duly constituted
legislative committee of Congress if accused of Communist affiliations,
as was the case with Wilson at the time. The Academy, in the awkward
position of possibly conferring its highest honor on someone whose name
had been omitted from screen credit, revised its bylaws at a special
February 6, 1957, meeting. That revision, in essence, allowed that in
such cases, the achievement itself could be eligible for nomination, but
the specific writer would be ineligible. The following instructions
were sent to Price Waterhouse & Co., Certified Public Accountants,
who tabulated Academy ballots: "...we ask that if, in tabulating the
nominations ballots for Best Screenplay (adapted), Friendly Persuasion is one of the five nominations, you list the other four alphabetically by title and below: Friendly Persuasion
- Achievement nominated, but writer ineligible for Award under Academy
By-Laws." On February 17, 1957, the Academy's Board of Governors voted
to instruct Price Waterhouse & Co. "...to list five nominations, and
in the event that one of these is declared ineligible under the By-Law
provision, four nominations would appear on the final ballot." THIS
NOMINATION WAS NOT INCLUDED ON THE FINAL BALLOT. (The bylaw was
repealed by the Academy as "unworkable" on January 12, 1959.) On
December 10, 2002, the Academy's Board of Governors voted to reinstate
Mr. Wilson's nomination.]
